A record of the hope, terror and unknown future faced when the one you love most in the world suffers a brain injury.

Saturday, 5 April 2014

Lucky me

Two years, five months and nine days ago Jake was hit by a car cycling to work. The driver wasn't paying attention, failed to give way and pulled onto the roundabout into Jake's path. The consequences of this moment of inattention have been devastating, far reaching and our lives will never, ever be the same. I have woken each morning after that day fearfully wondering what our future will hold.

It took 14 months to get a criminal conviction and yesterday saw the conclusion of the civil case with an approval hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice; essentially a rubber stamping of the settlement agreed in December.

To be 100% clear; settlements of this kind are designed to meet the ongoing care, therapy and day to days needs of the injured victim to attempt to give them some quality of life that reflects life before the injury. We have not won the lottery folks.

That said, this morning I feel very, very lucky and am pleased to say that I slept, undisturbed through the night; a very rare thing indeed.

I say I feel lucky because I am very aware that things could have been so very, very different. I say I feel lucky for two reasons (you'll notice I say 'I'; I don't recommend suggesting to Jake that he is lucky).

Firstly, I am lucky because of all the people and families living with a brain injury for whom a settlement of this kind has never been an option. The Headway website states that there are at least 1 million people in the UK living with the long term effects of brain injury. The majority of these are most likely to be surviving on benefits against an uncertain backdrop of sweeping changes to the benefits system.

Secondly, I am lucky because of the continuing and mistifyingly awesome improvements that Jake continues to make long after the collective accepted wisdom confidently states it should have slowed or even stopped. His psychologist told me this week that she would put no limits on what he could achieve. Ha!

So this morning I awoke not fearfully, but hopefully wondering what the future will hold; how lucky is that?

1 comment:

But about the mystifying improvements: please tell the world that so many people who have a brain injury do continue improve many, many years after the injury. I had a stroke 4 years ago, I'm still seeing improvements--my language, my motor skills, and thinking are so much better. Go Jake!